To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the research her Department and the Medical Research Council are funding into the cost effectiveness of novel surgical procedures.

The Department of Health has commissioned the following work into novel surgical procedures:

• Economic evaluation of laser technology in medical care (Brunel University—£106,648 between 1990 and 1992)
• Neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a multicentre randomised controlled trial (National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit—£484,719 between 1992 and 1997)
• Neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a multicentre randomised controlled trial (University of Leicester—£623,207 between 1992 and 1996)
• A prospective cohort study to evaluate the long and medium term outcomes of transcervical ablation of the endometrium (Brunel University—£425,000 between 1993 and 1999)

The Department of Health has identified minimal access therapy (MAT) as a high priority for research in its 1993–94 programme.The Medical Research Council receives its grant-in-aid from my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.